A Bohme Cooked Meal

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

I had never eaten scallops growing up. It wasn’t until about a year or so ago that I
was willing to try one. Watching Hell’s
Kitchen has made me want to be a scallop eater.
However the few times I tried scallops it wasn’t really worth the
hype. I didn’t enjoy the texture or
flavor of the scallop. It wasn’t until
last year when my work had a wine maker dinner that I went to where I had the
BEST scallops. I seriously could have
eaten plate’s worth of these bad boys.

I feel that it is also worth noting that I am not a beer or
wine drinker either. I can barely drink Moscato let alone imagine
drinking and enjoying a glass of red wine.
Going into this event I was open to trying the pairings of wine and
food. I enjoyed every bite and sip. Maybe too much! The pours of wine were VERY
generous and I was feeling it! Needless
to say that Basel Cellars http://baselcellars.com/
impressed me with the taste of their wine.
This evening taught that there
are wines that I can enjoy, apparently I have expensive tastes! Ned Morris
really knows his wine! It was a really
nice hear about how they create their blends and learning about how wine is
made. It was an evening I will remember
for a long time.

Back to the scallops…MMMMM.
The corn was the perfect complement to the scallops. I will be trying to recreate this dish….it
was heavenly.

Here is the rest of the food we ate!

I forgot to take picture of the first course. :\

This is the duck with arugula! (I easily drank 7 glasses of wine and they were fuller than the picture above)

Saturday, February 15, 2014

It is really hard to decide what my first food focused blog
is going to be about. I decided to write about baking with friends
and my first attempt at cheesecake. I
don’t know what it is about cheesecake but I have always been intimidated by
it. The idea of giving a bath to my
dessert is unsettling and seemed unnecessary to me. However one of my good friends Molly wanted
to have a baking date and will only eat desserts that are chocolate. This seemed like an exciting challenge.

I prepared the cheesecake (it was terrifying and successful) the night before our baking date and the rest is history. This was the picture I sent to my friend documenting my success!

Pictures of our baking date!

Look how pretty that cake is! Best date ever!

Nobody finished their slice of cake!

Please note that this chocolate cheesecake cake is
RICH. When I say rich I mean….owning a
mansion and having 100 housekeepers and someone to help you put on your
underwear kind of rich. I enjoy all
types of decadent desserts and this was way too much for me. If you enjoy dark chocolate this is the cake
for you.

I brought most of this cake with me to work and it was
devoured by the chocolate lovers in my office.
I think this cake is a winner that I also made the Red Velvet Cheesecake
Cake. The only thing I did differently
than Recipegirl.com was to leave out the chocolate shavings on the top and omitted
the instant espresso powder from the cake recipe.

1. Prepare the cheesecake layer: Preheat oven
to 325 degrees F. Place a large roasting pan on the lower third rack of the
oven. Place a kettle of water on the stove to boil. Spray a 9-inch springform
pan with nonstick spray and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper.
Wrap a double layer of foil around the bottom and up the sides of the pan (you
want to seal it so the water from the water bath doesn't seep into the pan).
Place chocolate in a medium glass bowl. Melt in the microwave in 30 second
bursts until the chocolate is melted and smooth, stirring after each burst. Set
the chocolate aside and let it cool off until it is lukewarm but still
pourable. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to mix the cream cheese- blend
until it is nice and smooth and creamy. Mix in sugar and cocoa powder and blend
until incorporated, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Add eggs, one at
a time, blending after each addition. Mix in the lukewarm chocolate. Mix until
smooth. The batter will be very thick- scrape it into the prepared pan and
smooth the top. Set the pan into the roasting pan in the pre-heated oven.
Carefully pour the hot water from your kettle into the roasting pan (it will
fill the pan surrounding the cheesecake). Pour enough water so that there is
about an inch of water coming up the foil along the sides of the cheesecake
pan. Bake the cheesecake for 45 minutes. It should be set to the touch and not
jiggly. Remove the cheesecake from the roasting pan and let it cool on a wire
rack for at least an hour. When it has cooled, place the pan into the freezer
and let the cheesecake freeze completely. This can be done in several hours- or
overnight.

2. Prepare the cake layers: Preheat oven to 350
degrees F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round metal baking pans (or spray with
nonstick baking spray with flour). In a large bowl, whisk together flour,
sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add espresso powder,
eggs, 1/4 cup of the buttermilk, butter and vanilla to the flour mixture. Using
an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat for 1 minute, until blended. Scrape
sides and bottom of bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat on high speed for 2
minutes. Add the remaining buttermilk and beat on low speed for 15 to 30
seconds, until just blended. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pans,
dividing equally. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the
center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Let cool in pans on a wire
rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pans, then invert cakes
onto a rack to cool completely.

3. Prepare the frosting: In a large
microwave-safe bowl, combine the chocolate chips and butter. Microwave 1 to 2
minutes, stopping every 30 seconds to stir, until melted and smooth. Whisk the
sour cream and corn syrup into the chocolate mixture until smooth. Cover and
refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until firm enough to spread.

4. Assemble the cake: Place one cake layer into
the center of a cake plate or platter. Remove the cheesecake from the freezer,
take off the sides of the pan, and slide a knife under the parchment to remove
the cheesecake from the pan. Peel off the parchment. Measure your cheesecake
layer against the cake layers. If the cheesecake layer turns out to be a slightly
larger round than your cake, move it to a cutting board and gently shave off
some of the exterior of the cheesecake (with a sharp knife) to get it to the
same size as your cake layers. Place the cheesecake layer on top of the first
cake layer. Place the 2nd cake layer on top of the cheesecake.

5. Frost the cake: Apply a crumb coat layer to
the cake- use a long, thin spatula to cover the cake completely with a thin and
even layer of frosting. Be sure to wipe off your spatula each time you are
about to dip it back into the bowl to get more frosting (this way you won't be
transferring any crumbs into the bowl of frosting). Don't worry at this point
about the crumbs being visible in the frosting on the cake. When your cake has
a thin layer of frosting all over it, place it into the refrigerator for 30
minutes to "set" the frosting. Once the first layer of frosting is
set, apply the 2nd layer. Start by adding a large scoop of frosting onto the
top of the cake. Use a long, thin spatula to spread the frosting evenly across
the top and then spread it down the sides of the cake too. Because you applied
a crumb-coat layer, you shouldn't have any crumbs floating around in the final
frosting layer.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

My name is Kim and I am a weird and goofy person who enjoys
eating delicious food. Let me tell you a
bit about who I am so you can start to understand what I am looking to get out of
posting on A Bohme Cooked Meal.

I am so stinken cute!

I met my husband at a youth leadership training camp that
promotes healthy lifestyle choices called Operation Snowball. We dated throughout our last two years of
college and got married in 2009. We adopted a cat and have been happily married
ever since.

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and moved to Central
Oregon in 2010. Why did we move? Because we can! The husband and I wanted to find someplace
calmer and nicer and boy did we find it. We currently don’t have children and
it seemed like the right thing to do for us.
Not to mention that I HATED Chicago winters with a passion and the
winters out here are so mild.

I learned much of what I know about food in general from my
mother. She enjoys food just about as
much as I do. I am so thankful she tried
to each me a ton about food and cooking while I grew up under her roof. I didn’t appreciate it when I lived with
her…mainly due to my HATERED for doing dishes.
It wasn’t until I moved out on my own that I started to develop my love
for baking and it wasn’t until I got married and got a stable job that I really
enjoyed eating. (Ramen just isn’t what
it used to be now that I can afford to eat steak. Who knew!) Anyways, whenever I happen to have access to
cable TV I am glued to Food Network and I follow so many different food blogs
that some may say I have an addiction.

One of the things I enjoy most and don’t get to do often
enough is invite people over to my house and cook meals for them. I can spend hours thumbing through cookbooks,
www.theoldreader.com, and Pinterest
trying to assemble the perfect menu. I
love the feeling I get when people stop talking at the dinner table and shovel
food into their face. The best
compliment I could get in regards to my cooking. I may not appreciate the same reactions if I
asked the group how I was dressed and silence overcame the room and people
start scarfing food in their mouths.

A bit more about me!

What’s my favorite color?

Blue (none of that baby blue stuff
either)

What do you like to do other than cook and eat?

I love to roller skate, watch
reality TV, editing sound in films (nerd alert), music (listening and singing)!
I have recently gotten really into
Zumba! I am sure there is more but that
is the basics.

Are you into sports?

I love watching Hockey! Roller Derby!

Me skating as a jammer! Photo from Polished Photography.

My sister and I at a hockey game!

What do you do for a living?

I work at a Child Abuse
Intervention Center. If a child is
suspected of being abused they come to the center and get a full head to toe
examination and receive a forensic interview where the child can share their
story in a child friendly environment. I
have the privilege to work in child abuse prevention where I train adults on
how to keep children safe from all forms of abuse. I love my job…it is not at all what I went to
school for. But life is a journey right!

Do you have any pets?

We have two animals. Patty our mostly toothless cat and Lucy, a two year old standard poodle (the
newest addition to the family) who is a total cuddle monster!

Why call the blog A Bohme Cooked Meal?

It was better than calling it…a
blog that justifies me making really delicious food and an even better excuse
to eat it! Actually my last name is
Bohme and when you say it out loud it sounds like A Home Cooked Meal. It just sounded right. My roller derby name (more on that later) is
Bohme Crusher when said out loud is Bone Crusher. It just seemed right. It’s me!

So what do I intend for this blog to be…?

1I hope that this blog will challenge me to write
down my recipes for dinners. On more
than one occasion I have come up with a stellar recipe and want to recreate it
a few months down the road but can’t remember how many shakes of “this” and pinches
of “that.” It drives me CRAZY!

2A mechanism to practice photography. Before I went to art school I was pretty sure
I wanted to be a photographer but decided to learn audio arts and acoustics
instead!

3To challenge baking comfort zone. Things that used to freak me out…cheesecake
and yeast. Now I can make these without
a sinking pit in my stomach.

A place where I can talk about my life and
experiences. (My challenge this year is to create better life balance. More on
that down the road.)A place where I can have an outlet for my
skills/talents. I know how to create
films and edit them professionally and I rarely get to do that in my current
field.
A place/outlet for me to be real.

7A place where I can use as many “…” and “!!!!”
as I want! (AHHH the power)

What this blog will not be…

1A showcase for bananas or sweet potatoes. I do not enjoy them and rarely bake with them. I am so thankful that my husband dislikes
them too! That is true love!

Grammaticly correct. (ßSee
what I did there) I am not an English
major. I do not enjoy editing my own
writing. And I am not writing this blog
to impress anyone. If this bugs
you…don’t read my stuff. Mmmk!?!

3Anything but real. This is my life…you don’t have to like it but
one thing is for damn sure and it is that I will not change who I am to feel
accepted. I love the person who I am and
have worked hard to find people in my life that can appreciate who I am. I am glad that I have learned this lesson so
early on in my life.

Super edited.
I want to write from the heart and so I don’t plan to go back and sensor
myself. You may get some rambling and
you will have to deal with that. It is
how I would talk to you if you were here…so there!

I am sure if you are reading the blog from the beginning you
will learn plenty about me as we move forward.
So enough about me.

I do want to say thank-you to those who have helped me
become who I am today.

Thanks to those in my daily life who will receive tons of
baked goods…willingly and unwillingly, because I don’t want to eat all of
it. I would be the size of a blimp if I
did. I have to share the love right.

Thanks to my husband for being supportive of all the crazy
things I do. I am not the easiest person
to be with but you love me regardless!

About Me

My name is Kim Bohme and I have been wanting to document my adventure in cooking since 2010 but I am now making that wish a reality. I hope to document my a dash of this and a pinch of that cooking methods on this blog and share some of my favorite meals.